The present invention relates generally to a limb support and positioning structure used for maintaining a patient's arm in the desired position for surgery thereon. More specifically, the present invention relates to a surgical limb support and positioning structure that allows for the adjustable positioning of the patient's arm during the implementation of a surgical procedure.
Limb support and positioning devices, also referred to as traction devices, are commonly used by surgeons to maintain a patient's limb or extremity in a controlled and elevated position during a surgical procedure. For example, if a person has a broken arm, a traction device may be employed to elevate the arm while the person is reclining on an operating table in order to immobilize and align the arm so that the fracture can be repaired properly. In this regard, numerous devices and structures are currently available in the prior art that are tailored for use as support structures for a limb or the limbs of a patient and particularly for use during the implementation of surgical procedures where it is of extreme importance that the limb or limbs being operated on are immobilized in a desired position in order to insure proper alignment during the procedure.
The difficulty with a great number of the prior art devices is that they are tailored to a shape that provides positioning for only a single procedure and are therefore not useful in other contexts. Further, because of their specialized nature, such devices often do not include any adjustability for the positioning of the limb retained therein. Such devices take the form of bolsters and arm boards that are designed to constrain the forearm of the patient while a medical device is applied to the patient's arm. In these devices there is some degree of adjustability relative to the longitudinal extension of the support and some minor adjustability for supporting the hand. However, the degree of angular adjustment in supporting the forearm, elbow, arm and shoulder is only of relatively limited nature.
In one prior art device, an assembly is provided that is mounted in a stand on the floor or on the base of the surgical table. A supporting rod extends upwardly from beneath the table and supports a secondary member using an articulated joint that in turn engages the patient's hand or forearm in order to support and position the limb. In operation however, the primary support bar is positioned such that it is often in the way of accessing the patient's elbow, requiring instead that the surgeon work around the bar. Further, when the patient is in a supine position and the elbow is in an extended position the bar of the support must be fully extended wherein it hits the patient's body, thereby limiting the overall total extension that is possible. In another prior art device, a rope weight design is used in positioning the patient's arm. However, since the device is applied in a non-sterile fashion, the surgeon is limited in the intraoperative adjustments that can be achieved.
Therefore, although a variety of traction assemblies are known in a prior art, there still exit a need to provide an arm support assembly that can better position a patient's arm during a surgical process. There is a further need for an arm positioning apparatus that can fully sterilized and that allows fully adjustable support of a patient's arm in a manner that facilitates better positioning and support of the shoulder arm and elbow joint while allowing unimpeded access thereto.